Remember when things were hitting the fan a few months ago and nervous investors read of “enhanced” money market funds that maintained sizeable portions of the seemingly-benign cash funds in illiquid SIVs. Investors wanted fund companies to show them the money — and make sure that their cash is really safe.
It got me thinking. I just read an interesting article on MarketWatch regarding the money market business. Outside of reading the literature published by the fund company in question (one of the best things to do), wouldn’t it be interesting if there were an unbiased 3rd party to provide some visibility into the black box money market business.
I stumbled upon a website entitled iMoneyNet which does just that. Run by Informa, the site provides data and services for serious investors looking at the money fund space. The site also compares different funds (hint, online brokers have some of the best rates and check out PayPal!) to each other and the national average. Kinda useful. Here’s a link to the most recent retail report showing 5 year returns.
In a world where cash is becoming seen more and more as an asset class, information on cash funds is also maturing.
